Some quick notes.

Our little grey kitten has died. Mike (our neighbor) found him two days ago. "Our"! He was a little alley cat that was always so sick, and so many people (in the six months since he was born) kept trying to take him home, but he was a real feral creature! But he loved being here (the three houses that adjourn, ours and the ones on the right and the left) and everyone was feeding him, trying to take care of him... he had an eye infection, but that had finally started to clear up. But it was only a matter of time, it was hard to see how he could make it through this summer. Still, it's sad.

We had to get the plumbers: yesterday, when i was taking a shower, it started to leak into the basement. Turns out that the cap on the pipe was shot: a hole had been developing. So the cap was replaced. It could have been much, much worse. But the plmbers came and they've just left.

Last night, went to see Shane Meadow's "This Is England": the first press screening i've been to in a while. I must say i enjoyed the movie. It's set in the 1980s, during the Falkland War. It really does give you a sense of how the skinheads came into being... and you really got into the mindset of the characters. An impressive movie.

Yesterday, tried to watch two more of the Randolph Scott Westerns on TCM when i got back from the screening, but was distracted because we were nervous about the leak. (What is it was really severe? Would they have to take out the whole bathtub, and then would we have to replace the entire first floor bathroom?) We're always worried, every time something happens.

Kim Ki-Duk's "Time" opened. The idea of the movie (a girl getting plastic surgery so that she can become more beautiful for her boyfriend) has a creepy fascination, but it wasn't quite as gripping as it should have been. In a way, the reviews that the film got (not so much mostly negative, but mostly dismissive) are more interesting than the film. The film was (ultimately) rather flat, but the reviews had such invective.

I think that what's happened is that a lot of the J-horror and K-horror films that have come over here have actually been rather overpraised. And this is starting to ahve an effect. And the idea that a lot of these genre films from Asia might not be as good as people wnt them to be has started to sink in, but no one wants to say it. So Kim Ki-Duk is being used as a scapegoat: an "arty" poseur who is finally being seen for the phoney he is. But i think it's overkill.

Tonight: a screening of Danny Boyle's "Sunshine". Plus the season premieres of "Monk" and "Psych". Larry and i love "Psych".